Hey all. Hope this isn't too long but hoping someone can give me more of a clue than I have right now, I'm not much of a car guy unfortunately. So about a month ago I bought an 04 Accord V6 from a guy. High mileage (near 200k) but said it was well maintained and looked it, it was very clean inside, outside, under the hood and everything worked (other than the nav, says 'check disk' which is in there). Even had new brakes, tires, and fluids changed. He wanted $2500 for it but as I was test driving I noticed a hiccup in the transmission where it lost acceleration slightly and then returned to normal. I decided to pass on it because I wasn't sure about that, then he called 2 days later saying he just wants to be rid of it because he got his daughter a new car, and $600 I can take it.

Being in desperate need of a car atm and only happening once, I risked it and bought it. So after a few weeks of driving it daily for errands, I had ZERO problems and transmission seemed rock solid shifting/no CEL, I thought I got a great deal. Until yesterday when I took it on the highway for the first time to a store. The way there was fine but on the way back, it started acting weird trying to downshift as I was nearing my exit. After stopping at the red light, I went to go and it wouldn't accelerate like it was in neutral. I shut if off and turned it back on and it kicked into gear and went, but then did the downshift thing again and the CEL started flashing. I pulled over, parked for 10 minutes, started it up and the light was off and it shifted into gear, so drove home carefully.

Today I wanted to test it out and take it to Autozone to have the previous CEL code read. Well it started out shifting fine but a mile down the road at the red light, it did the thing where it wouldn't move again. After shutting off/turning on multiple times I finally got it to kick in and made it out of the roadway. I had it towed to a shop and they drove it around the block, having the same problem (losing acceleration) half way, again after stopping and restarting it went back into gear and they drove back. They read the previous codes and said it was something unrelated and nothing about the transmission, but told me my transmission is bad and it's 4k for a new one. So I managed to drive it home and researched and found out about the transmission problems of this model and a lot of people saying it could be a solenoid. Obviously I'm not going to spend 3-4k on a 2-3k vehicle, so does it sound like it's bad or could it be a relatively cheap fix by changing a solenoid? Will a transmission place test the solenoids? I'm afraid they'll just tell me it's bad again without diagnosing anything, how could there be no codes from a bad transmission? Worst case, having paid $600, what do you think I could sell it for with a bad transmission?

 

Did the shop give you the actual numbers for the codes when they diagnosed the issue?

 

Where are you actually at. A reman trans should only cost around $1200 shipped and getting someone to put it in $500. There's a shop here in SC that does them same day for less that $2000 with a 3 year warranty. Shop around. People have made a business out of the 98-05 cars just replacing the transmissions and have perfected it. I say you got a great deal on the car if you fix the transmission smartly. I have done many through those years and it's easier to get a reman because most of them are damaged internally.

This is one out of California

 

No they didn't. I believe they said it came up as a fuel ratio error or something like that, but having had no problems or CEL's except for that time it was severely acting up with shifting, they said it may just be a fluke code. I read that some transmission codes might not come up in a normal scan so I'm taking it to a transmission place now to have it checked again and will ask what actual codes are there if any.

 

Thank you for your reply. I'm in Las Vegas, NV. Your link is definitely better than what they were quoting and with a warranty so I'm looking into that, I also saw this link from another post on here which seems to be revamped for specific problems with this model, but they're a ways farther from me in SC: 3.0L 6Cyl Transmission B7XA

I'm taking it up to a trans place now just to see what they say, will post back if I get any CEL codes

 

That is the company I get my transmissions from. I've never had an issue with them. They also saw on eBay and give you options to add

 

Or look into a JDM used replacement trans. Most of them have 60K miles or less. That's my plan for my wife's car when it fails. I think I was quoted at 500 plus shipping from Texas.

 

I have also done JDM. You have to be careful on the year you put them in. Some years you may have to do a bypass to prevent a light. I don't know if on an 04 you have to.